The Problem of Producing Literate Subjects: Education and Specific Reading Difficulties

Abstract

This chapter describes the work of a variety of authors whose writings on reading in educational journals made the school an increasingly hospitable site for a diagnosis such as congenital word-blindness to be deployed. The processes by which children learnt to read; the importance of these bodies acquiring the ability to read in order to develop a more advanced understanding of various subjects; the development of a concern that some pupils had a pronounced difficulty with reading; techniques for improving overall reading rates of a class and individuals accredited as having a difficulty; tests used to examine reading ability; the perceived social–cultural benefits of reading; and the emergence of specific techniques for educating children accredited with congenital word-blindness are all discussed in the journals from which I have drawn the following discussion.